# Kernel Input Plugin

This plugin is only available on Linux.

The kernel plugin gathers info about the kernel that doesn't fit into other
plugins. In general, it is the statistics available in `/proc/stat` that are not
covered by other plugins as well as the value of
`/proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail` and optionally, Kernel Samepage Merging
and Pressure Stall Information.

The metrics are documented in `man 5 proc` under the `/proc/stat` section, as
well as `man 4 random` under the `/proc interfaces` section
(for `entropy_avail`).

```text
/proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail
Contains the value of available entropy

/proc/stat
kernel/system statistics. Varies with architecture. Common entries include:

page 5741 1808
The number of pages the system paged in and the number that were paged out (from disk).

swap 1 0
The number of swap pages that have been brought in and out.

intr 1462898
This line shows counts of interrupts serviced since boot time, for each of
the possible system interrupts. The first column is the total of all
interrupts serviced; each subsequent column is the total for a particular interrupt.

ctxt 115315
The number of context switches that the system underwent.

btime 769041601
boot time, in seconds since the Epoch, 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC).

processes 86031
Number of forks since boot.
```

Kernel Samepage Merging is generally documented in [kernel documentation][1] and
the available metrics exposed via sysfs are documented in [admin guide][2].

Pressure Stall Information is exposed through `/proc/pressure` and is documented
in [kernel documentation][3]. Kernel version 4.20 or later is required.
Examples of PSI:

```shell
# /proc/pressure/cpu
some avg10=1.53 avg60=1.87 avg300=1.73 total=1088168194

# /proc/pressure/memory
some avg10=0.00 avg60=0.00 avg300=0.00 total=3463792
full avg10=0.00 avg60=0.00 avg300=0.00 total=1429641

# /proc/pressure/io
some avg10=0.00 avg60=0.00 avg300=0.00 total=68568296
full avg10=0.00 avg60=0.00 avg300=0.00 total=54982338
```

[1]: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/mm/ksm.html
[2]: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/mm/ksm.html#ksm-daemon-sysfs-interface
[3]: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/accounting/psi.html

## Global configuration options <!-- @/docs/includes/plugin_config.md -->

In addition to the plugin-specific configuration settings, plugins support
additional global and plugin configuration settings. These settings are used to
modify metrics, tags, and field or create aliases and configure ordering, etc.
See the [CONFIGURATION.md][CONFIGURATION.md] for more details.

[CONFIGURATION.md]: ../../../docs/CONFIGURATION.md#plugins

## Configuration

```toml @sample.conf
# Plugin to collect various Linux kernel statistics.
# This plugin ONLY supports Linux
[[inputs.kernel]]
  ## Additional gather options
  ## Possible options include:
  ## * ksm - kernel same-page merging
  ## * psi - pressure stall information
  # collect = []
```

## Metrics

- kernel
  - boot_time (integer, seconds since epoch, `btime`)
  - context_switches (integer, `ctxt`)
  - disk_pages_in (integer, `page (0)`)
  - disk_pages_out (integer, `page (1)`)
  - interrupts (integer, `intr`)
  - processes_forked (integer, `processes`)
  - entropy_avail (integer, `entropy_available`)
  - ksm_full_scans (integer, how many times all mergeable areas have been scanned, `full_scans`)
  - ksm_max_page_sharing (integer, maximum sharing allowed for each KSM page, `max_page_sharing`)
  - ksm_merge_across_nodes (integer, whether pages should be merged across NUMA nodes, `merge_across_nodes`)
  - ksm_pages_shared (integer, how many shared pages are being used, `pages_shared`)
  - ksm_pages_sharing (integer,how many more sites are sharing them , `pages_sharing`)
  - ksm_pages_to_scan (integer, how many pages to scan before ksmd goes to sleep, `pages_to_scan`)
  - ksm_pages_unshared (integer, how many pages unique but repeatedly checked for merging, `pages_unshared`)
  - ksm_pages_volatile (integer, how many pages changing too fast to be placed in a tree, `pages_volatile`)
  - ksm_run (integer, whether ksm is running or not, `run`)
  - ksm_sleep_millisecs (integer, how many milliseconds ksmd should sleep between scans, `sleep_millisecs`)
  - ksm_stable_node_chains (integer, the number of KSM pages that hit the max_page_sharing limit, `stable_node_chains`)
  - ksm_stable_node_chains_prune_millisecs (integer, how frequently KSM checks the metadata of the pages that hit the deduplication limit, `stable_node_chains_prune_millisecs`)
  - ksm_stable_node_dups (integer, number of duplicated KSM pages, `stable_node_dups`)
  - ksm_use_zero_pages (integer, whether empty pages should be treated specially, `use_zero_pages`)

- pressure (if `psi` is included in `collect`)
  - tags:
    - resource: cpu, memory, or io
    - type: some or full
  - floating-point fields: avg10, avg60, avg300
  - integer fields: total

## Example Output

Default config:

```text
kernel boot_time=1690487872i,context_switches=321398652i,entropy_avail=256i,interrupts=141868628i,processes_forked=946492i 1691339564000000000
```

If `ksm` is included in `collect`:

```text
kernel boot_time=1690487872i,context_switches=321252729i,entropy_avail=256i,interrupts=141783427i,ksm_full_scans=0i,ksm_max_page_sharing=256i,ksm_merge_across_nodes=1i,ksm_pages_shared=0i,ksm_pages_sharing=0i,ksm_pages_to_scan=100i,ksm_pages_unshared=0i,ksm_pages_volatile=0i,ksm_run=0i,ksm_sleep_millisecs=20i,ksm_stable_node_chains=0i,ksm_stable_node_chains_prune_millisecs=2000i,ksm_stable_node_dups=0i,ksm_use_zero_pages=0i,processes_forked=946467i 1691339522000000000
```

If `psi` is included in `collect`:

```text
pressure,resource=cpu,type=some avg10=1.53,avg60=1.87,avg300=1.73 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=memory,type=some avg10=0.00,avg60=0.00,avg300=0.00 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=memory,type=full avg10=0.00,avg60=0.00,avg300=0.00 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=io,type=some avg10=0.0,avg60=0.0,avg300=0.0 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=io,type=full avg10=0.0,avg60=0.0,avg300=0.0 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=cpu,type=some total=1088168194i 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=memory,type=some total=3463792i 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=memory,type=full total=1429641i 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=io,type=some total=68568296i 1700000000000000000
pressure,resource=io,type=full total=54982338i 1700000000000000000
```

Note that the combination for `resource=cpu,type=full` is omitted because it is
always zero.